A La Mode Flood Maps

[Doug Smith SRA]

I signed up first day using the 800 number. Up to now flood maps were either not available for Montana or the product did not have enough coverage.

I have used the product on a few reports and see this product as a breakthrough product yielding up both the flood map and the census tract.
The copy feature worked flawlessly and the print out quality was good. The page has a professional look.

At the price offered it is must have for any office.

Thumbs up from Southwest Montana!!!

 

[Tim Hicks (Texas)]

I signed up for the interflood maps because my Lochsheil CD doesn't seem to have the most current maps. I upgraded in October because I noticed many new map dates at the FEMA site. The CD I received had very few of the new maps. I have only tried Interflood once, and it tried to tell be there was no map available. It was a semi-rural property (densely populated, but out of the city limits) and Interflood had me pinpoint it on a map, because they could not find the address. Then it told me no map was available. This is false, I have that map on my CD and have paper maps back to 1991. This draws me to the conclusion that Interflood is not completely stocked yet on their maps, but wil not admit it. I suggest you make sure they have your maps before you invest. If they have your maps I think it is a good investment. Interflood is owned by Alamode. I love Alamode and I am an Alamode user, but this is typical for them. Selling something before it is complete is their biggest drawback! Dave, you can argue this point all you want, but since 1994 this is your company's MO.

 

[dbiggers]

Sorry you feel that way, and yes, I disagree strongly -- but as we state clearly, these are maps from FloodSource, and they have all the FEMA maps. We (a la mode) don't stock any maps -- these get pulled from FloodSource's server directly. They stock over 111,000 maps (every FEMA map), so your assertion that the database is "still being stocked" simply isn't correct. FloodSource has had this database complete for quite some time. It sounds like your case caused the server to throw an error of some sort.

Since you say it didn't find it on a street map, that brings into question whether any system anywhere will be able to find that address (we use state of the art geocoding systems, the same which power over 20,000 maps a day for our current IDC street map users).

One thing we've seen is that in some areas where FEMA maps are ambiguous or not overlapping, the FloodSource server will not find the map the first time, but may do with a slight movement of the geocoded position.

Don't forget too Tim that since this is a la mode, there's never any limits on getting a refund. We always have and always will stand behind everything we do -- so nobody risks anything on InterFlood.

Oh, one more thing -- we programmed our servers to submit any "failed" address to FloodSource and to our management every day, so don't think that we don't take this seriously and expect them to fix any errors their servers may throw. At the end of every day, I see every address that had any error whatsoever. I seriously doubt anyone else does that, or is as concerned about the quality as we are, so it's a little odd to call this product premature. If it were, we wouldn't have that level of back-end quality control in place.

Dave Biggers
CEO
a la mode, inc.

I signed up for the interflood maps because my Lochsheil CD doesn't seem to have the most current maps. I upgraded in October because I noticed many new map dates at the FEMA site. The CD I received had very few of the new maps. I have only tried Interflood once, and it tried to tell be there was no map available. It was a semi-rural property (densely populated, but out of the city limits) and Interflood had me pinpoint it on a map, because they could not find the address. Then it told me no map was available. This is false, I have that map on my CD and have paper maps back to 1991. This draws me to the conclusion that Interflood is not completely stocked yet on their maps, but wil not admit it. I suggest you make sure they have your maps before you invest. If they have your maps I think it is a good investment. Interflood is owned by Alamode. I love Alamode and I am an Alamode user, but this is typical for them. Selling something before it is complete is their biggest drawback! Dave, you can argue this point all you want, but since 1994 this is your company's MO.

 

[Tim Hicks (Texas)]

Dave, I will stick with it and Alamode because it is a "superior" product and sooner or later you always get the kinks worked out. I am sorry, but I figure you have enough customers telling you how great your product is and you do need somebody to point out the problems now and then so you can fix them. As you probably know, I am not shy about pointing them out. I do suggest that you make interflood accessible from inside Athena instead of outside the program. Keep up the good work and remember you get my money every year.

 

[dbiggers]

No problem -- we always need and can use criticism (how do we know what to improve otherwise?). But I've gotta tel you -- this notion of being told how great it is all the time just isn't something that happens in our world. People are too busy to call to chat or e-mail on trivial things, so they limit it to "this sucks" and the occasional pipe bomb threats... 8O

We're adding a one-click method right inside Athena, just like street maps, and we're making the developer's XML interface available to every other software vendor too so they can add it to their systems as well.

Dave

Dave, I will stick with it and Alamode because it is a "superior" product and sooner or later you always get the kinks worked out. I am sorry, but I figure you have enough customers telling you how great your product is and you do need somebody to point out the problems now and then so you can fix them. As you probably know, I am not shy about pointing them out. I do suggest that you make interflood accessible from inside Athena instead of outside the program. Keep up the good work and remember you get my money every year.

 

[dbiggers]

Tim, as I mentioned earlier, we forwarded the addresses which failed to our flood map provider (FloodSource) and sure enough, it was a bug in their servers, not a lack of a map, which caused the problems. Of 184 "no map" addresses that we sent them, all but 6 were fixed by finding the bug in their system. (One of those was in the ocean, and the others were in areas not participating in the flood insurance program -- no FEMA map available even on paper.)

So, try your address again. I bet it works now.

Dave Biggers
CEO
a la mode, inc.

Dave, I will stick with it and Alamode because it is a "superior" product and sooner or later you always get the kinks worked out. I am sorry, but I figure you have enough customers telling you how great your product is and you do need somebody to point out the problems now and then so you can fix them. As you probably know, I am not shy about pointing them out. I do suggest that you make interflood accessible from inside Athena instead of outside the program. Keep up the good work and remember you get my money every year.

 

[Bryan (OK)]

Dave,

Just today I was researching flood maps and technology solutions. I felt the integrated solution through A La Mode made the most sense financially and from a ease of use perspective. When you through in the constant updating, even buying the Oklahoma $50 CD from FEMA becomes questionable. Not to mention the integration issue.

Nice work. I'll be signing up this week.

Bryan

 

[Mountain Man]

Dbiggers,
Very interesting, think I will give it a try.

 

[Tim Hicks (Texas)]

I have used it five times this week with no problems. It is great. No outdated CD that is supposedly current and it integrates well. I prefer this over the CD as long as I can get the most current maps.

 

[MarkRichmond]

I have a suggestion. Why not let potential customers try the service a few times before they buy it? I am very wary of plunking down money even with a money back guaranty if I have not used it. You would most likely get my business if I tried it once and enjoyed the results and quality.